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Exclusive| Riteish Deshmukh on first half of 2026: Even films that opened low, did big business later; this gives hope
Actor Riteish Deshmukh reacts to films from multiple genres doing well at the box-office at the same time.
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The half yearly reports are in for the film industry, and Riteish Deshmukh has a reason to rejoice. His film, Raja Shivaji emerged as the highest grossing Marathi film ever. A biopic on Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, he directed the magnum opus as well which started streaming on OTT recently after it's theatrical release.
Interestingly, the audiences, since the onset of 2026, have supported not just big-budget spectacle dramas, but also various genres like a partition drama (Main Vaapas Aaunga), comedy (Bhooth Bangla and Welcome To The Jungle), among others. As a member of the industry, he is absolutely delighted.
He tells HT City when we speak, “Every month, every two weeks, we are witnessing some success in terms of different genres. There's a comedy that's doing well, a horror film that did well. Even a film that didn't open well is doing extraordinary business in the third week compared to the first week. It definitely gives hope to all filmmakers to just believe in a subject. If the subject is right, audiences will turn up to theatres.”
Also read: Raja Shivaji review: This epic drama, starring Riteish Deshmukh is more admirable than riveting
Coming to his film, Raja Shivaji was mounted on a high budget, with the attempt clear at making it's appeal pan India. Names such as Abhishek Bachchan, Vidya Balan, Sanjay Dutt were associated with it. Commenting on the film's performance, he adds, “With this particular subject on Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, the dream was to show it across India. I'm glad that because of that, the reach has widened. It's absolutely humbling to see the response the audience has given. It's been an effort of three and a half years on ground, and probably more than ten years of dreaming to make this film. The idea that even in the Marathi industry, these kind of figures that we are seeing… I believe it's a beginning. We hope that more and more films come and break this record and make new ones, because unless records are broken commercially, the industry doesn't stand. It will only survive when newer records are broken frequently. That's very important.”
